Millions spent to bury East Yorkshire's rubbish
East Yorkshire's councils are spending millions of pounds to use other councils' landfill allowance – after exceeding their own.
Today, the Mail can reveal Hull City Council and East Riding Council have given £2m in the past four years to other local authorities, in return for landfill permits.
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East Yorkshire's councils have given £2m in the past four years to other local authorities in exchange for landfill permits
This enables them to exceed the landfill allocation, set by the Government.
Since 2005, officials have been forced to take the unusual measure, because they have exceeded the amount of household waste they are allowed to take to landfill each year.
And no end is in sight – unless recycling rates can be significantly boosted.
Over the next two financial years, the councils expect to pay another £560,000 between them, buying permits for roughly £14 per tonne.
If they did not buy the permits, the Government would fine them £150 per tonne for exceeding their limit.
It is thought this would cost Hull City Council more than £50m between 2009 and 2011.
And East Riding Council could expect a fine of £21m for the same period.
Last year, just eight out of 121 authorities bought permits from other councils to effectively "balance the books".
Sue Joliffe, at Hull Friends of the Earth said, although it was within the rules, the Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme (LATS) felt like "cheating", enabling councils to be less pro-active at recycling.
Ms Joliffe said: "If the councils had to take responsibility for their own excess waste, and faced a huge fine instead of a relatively small cost incurred by purchasing LATS from more efficient councils, there would be much more incentive for them to come up with appropriate alternatives."
The permits are bought from councils, which are well within their landfill targets, such as Stoke, Sheffield and North Lincolnshire.
High-performing councils usually have high recycling rates or alternative ways of disposing of waste, such as incinerators, so they do not have to landfill as much waste.
Hull City Council has spent £800,000 on LATS since the scheme began.
It anticipates it will spend another £420,000 in the next two years on borrowed landfill allowance.
Meanwhile, East Riding Council has spent £1.2m on LATS. It estimates it will spend another £144,000 in the same period.
East Riding Council's environment portfolio holder Councillor Symon Fraser said: "We are in that fish pond with other councils who are heavily reliant upon landfill and have had to purchase permits.
"That is money going to the Chancellor of the Exchequer that we would far, far rather be spent providing a long-term solution to that problem, or on other council services.
"That is why we are concentrating on improving our recycling."
It is thought the demand, and therefore the cost of these permits, will rocket in the next three years, as more councils exceed their ever-decreasing landfill allocation, set by the Government.
As such, both authorities are working hard to introduce new recycling schemes to reduce landfill.
At the end of 2009, Hull City Council was recycling 30 per cent of waste and East Riding Council was recycling 39 per cent. This is still behind their 45 per cent target, which they pledged to reach by the end of 2010.
The region is also particularly dependent on landfill, because it has no incinerator.
A 10-year wrangle to get one at Saltend is still on-going.
Planning permission has been granted, but objections from environmental groups meant it has never got off the ground.
The LATS are an additional burden, on top of the millions of pounds councils spend each year on landfill tax.
Hull City Council will spend £3.4m in landfill tax in 2009-10 and £4.2m in 2010-11. East Riding Council spent £4.6m this year and will spend £4.9m next year.
Currently, the Government charges £48 per tonne to landfill. This increases every year to discourage councils.
According to the 2008 Audit Commission's Well Disposed report, if we continue as we are, the UK's landfill sites will be full to capacity in just six years.
Doug Sharp, spokesman for Hull City Council, said: "It is absolutely crucial people take up the recycling schemes and continue the good work."
60 Comments
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by The Villager, East Riding
Monday, February 22 2010, 5:05PM
“I have a new solution: Everyone is individually responsible for disposing of their own rubbish. You can landfill it in your own backyard or, if you don't like rats, you can incinerate it in your own coal fires in your own homes. Regrettably, I haven't carried out any financial/ viability/health & safety studies etc. But then, even if I had I could "tweak" the results to suit my spin-doctors!!!”
by m, hull
Sunday, February 21 2010, 2:17AM
“hmm taxes on taxes,
so we get charged gov landfill taxes on top of our council taxes, thats fair being taxed twice, not”
by anon, even more anon
Saturday, February 20 2010, 6:06AM
“the problem of rubbish does not fall on the public it falls on the manufacturers of goods.Example,the other day i bought a battery for an xbox controller,the packaging was a cardboard seal which was then surrounded by a blown plastic cover.Do away with all that crap and just cover with a wrap of heat shrunk plastic a third of the cost and less than half the packaging=less recycling.As for recycling,what a load of garbage(excuse the pun)that phrase is.Everything we use comes from mother earth.so just dump it back in one pile.nature always finds a way to revive and survive.How can we be sure that by recycling we are not doing the future out of resourses they may need to survive..just think about that.”
by Jamie, Beverley
Friday, February 19 2010, 5:08AM
“Can people please stop using the phrase "so called" especially when it is not even used in the right context.”
by Astonomia, East Riding
Thursday, February 18 2010, 11:10PM
“Phil, Private Eye states that Mr Parnaby voted for Mr Taylor to join the board of HEP & that his company started to do their P.R. work however there seems to be 'confusion' over this tender process with the adverts for the tender going out after the company was hired. Apparently HEP has been told not to talk about this. Please note HDM that all this information is in the public domain, it is in the public interest for this to be investigated - maybe a story by your paper on this local matter? Certainly the taxpayers who fund these quangos council executives and councillors toknow how their money is being spent.”
by Paul S, Hull
Thursday, February 18 2010, 10:43PM
“What is Sue Sue Joliffe of Friends of the Earth on about. Friends of the rats more like! These people opposed incineration - a clean and effective way of getting rid of trash. Then they won't take responsibility for the mess (literally) that they leave others to clear up. Millions are spent burying waste rather than front line services like schools. These so called greens damage the environment with their wind farms and rubbish tips. Can't they go away and screw someone else's country up and give us a break? They are all problems and no answers. INCINERATE NOW!”
by Phil, East Riding
Thursday, February 18 2010, 10:14PM
“Astonomia,East Riding,
Likewise following this in Private Eye,however not read latest issue as yet but assume the Quango you refer will be The Humberside Economic Partnership.It is very interesting to note that a certain individual seems to have suddenly disappeared from their board of directors.
Incidentally their website was designed by yes we all know who...
Again HDM all in the public domain.”
by martin, East Hull Villages
Thursday, February 18 2010, 10:08PM
“Isn't the headline fantastic....Millions spent. The figure is 2 million spent in the last 4years, that's not millions, it's half a million per year. The recent lucky Gloucester couple just won 56 million, now that's MILLIONS for you. Come on HDM get it right and in persepctive. You don't say how much waste has been recycled only the cost of burying our rubbish. Are you in league with the council to push the incinerator plan. Well we don't want it at saltend. There's enough smells and noise coming from there already. We don't have any decent road links links to bring any waste in so if the council want to waste 150 million on a decent road and another 50 million on an incinerator plant then great. The plant should be situated with decent road links and that means west of the humber bridge. divide the 200 million cost between half a million a year to bury it and that's good for a hundred years when we will all be dead and buried!! Hopefully by that time the new generations will have a solution for our waste problem. Another solution to our waste is for the council to use it to repair our roads with because whatever they are using now is not working. Maybe convert the waste into chippings so they can lay more of the awful stuff come spring, damaging our cars, breaking our windscreens and blocking the drains so next time we have a good downpour we will flood again. Well done the councils your are doing a grand job....NOT”
by Astonomia, East Riding
Thursday, February 18 2010, 8:50PM
“Whilst I would never compare the ERYC to a pile of old rubbish, I see that Leader Parnaby & Cheif Exec. Pearson are in Private Eye for the six publication running. Yes it's still the P.R. Gate affair but now it seems to have widened to the placement on some never heard of Quango, the Humberside Economic something or other. Also Mt Pearson is accoused of sitting on the audit report on the whole business. Again all in the public domain so don't bother pulling this comment HDM, its perfectly legal. How long can those at the top continue this cover up before they both either resign or are suspended pending investigation? We pay our taxes we need to know.”
by David, Hull
Thursday, February 18 2010, 4:18PM
“Trigger, Peckham has the right idea. The supermarkets should be made to reduce the packaging. In Germany and other Euro countries, shoppers can put the packaging into bins in the store. That encourages the stores to reduce packaging as they have to deal with it.
I also agree with Brian Wilson on incineration because of the health problems associated with it.. Incineration is not the answer. The new recycling scheme being rolled out is already showing a marked increase in recycling and a reduction in waste. Once people get the hang of it there should be no need for landfill or incineration.”